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yeah, looks like babolat is pretty famous for european contenders. like pi hong yan and xu huai wen (if i am not mistaken). would it be fair to say that aside from YY, babolat is the next big equipment sponsor? or is it other brands like gosen and victor?

From what I remember, Gosen had previously sponsored the entire Malaysian team, but as we see now... a lot of players eg. LCW, LWW/CTF, and a whole bunch of other players have since been sponsored by Yonex.

I have certainly seen a lot of youngsters & European players sponsored by Victor, along with some of the top pros all getting their own racquet named after them by Victor.

However, it seems right now, that a lot of players have been sponsored by Babolat.
Judging by the list on the Babolat website...

Seems to be spreading throughout the UK & into the European block countries too.

I've played with Gosen products before... they are definitely a very good product, but with little exposure outside of Japan for badminton products.

I think they're more well known for some of their tennis strings.
When Anna Kournikova used to be under contract sponsorship.

Victor makes some fantastic products as well, but again without sponsoring more pros neither company will get the recognition they deserve on the world stage.

I see Babolat & HEAD, having better chances at this at the moment, as they can easily leverage their Tennis brand recognition into this sport.
To a lesser extent Wilson... their female sponsored players are certainly talented, however the males seemed to have dropped off the face of the map.

You can be sure that if big names like Babolat & HEAD are going to sponsor a tournament, they are going to turn a few heads from both marketing & television sponsors, which in our hopes again brings more coverage to badminton.

Without this extra competition for Yonex, it will be very tough for the players to get paid the earnings they deserve, and it will be very tough for our sport to continue expanding, mostly due to lack of funding.

We can only hope that other sponsors take note of this sport as a new source of revenues for their products & services.
There are a lot of viewers, and many many thousands of participants of this sport globally.
If they take YY earnings & market domination as an index indicator of their earning potential... they'll learn there is still a lot of room to expand.
But it takes time, to develop the talent & grow the market from the ground up.

I am a self admitted fan of Yonex products.
I like the quality product they've always produced.

However, I also like the fact that there are other manufacturers around now.
I like the fact that I see pro players being sponsored by non YY companies, and I like to see what they use.
I am currently & will be continuing to test out products offered by other manufacturers as a lot of you are currently doing.

If in the hopes of helping better educate myself, as well as other players on the products available on the market, and what they can expect from a non-pro level point of view.

Yes, I preach in other threads, the racquet does not matter, but that is only once you've reached a high enough skill level that it does not play a major factor (unless you're Chen Hong I think he misses the Nanospeed 8000 ).
However, it is important when you start out to at least find something comfortable to suit your style.
And our support of the various brands helps out the pros & the equipment manufacturers.

To answer your question... Yes.
I believe Babolat & HEAD (hopefully Wilson... once they get their act together again) are key to expanding the profile of badminton in UK & all around Europe.
As well as the US.

People whine Babolat has nothing new... this is true, but Babolat has a reason for sticking to their company principles.

This article outlines something off topic, but it also explains why Babolat is not a company to flood the market with new products every year confusing its buyers with marketing jive.

Or if you want it in laymens terms... "if it ain't broke, why fix it?"

I don't know about you, but as soon as I saw some of the European & UK pro's carrying HEAD & Babolat products, I could immediately recognize the logo's on their racquets, because I've already seen a lot of their tennis pros toting around the company logo.

In a similar manner YY grew the badminton market to the mass proportions it has built today.
It's obviously a vastly successful sporting goods empire...
HEAD & Babolat, will hopefully help continue the expansion & also grow their own sporting goods empires too.

I think I've more than made a few points now, so I will end this posting LOL
May have raised a few questions...
I definitely welcome anyone interested to give their input, whether they like the new sponsors or not.

first of all, i am a yonex lover too. i grew up with it. before i was a member in this forum, i never even considered getting a different brand racket. even when gosen was sponsoring the malaysian team. now it is a different story.

there has been a lot of prove that other brands can make good rackets too.
and i am glad the professionals are now being sponsored by a wide range of brands. i am kinda intrigued with babolat and it's quiet present in the badminton arena. haven't noticed HEAD yet. maybe i was not looking hard enough.

but for now, until i get my hands on other rackets, i guess yonex still my top choice, more so when the majority of pros are using yonex. maybe when there'a a big change in the badminton equipment market will other brands emerge as equal contenders to yonex. i hope they will. the more the merrier. and competition brings out the best. a little off topic, sorry.

looks like victor is making a push at improving its international recognizion & sales by sponsoring top level pros. nice move. will give consumers more options & badminton addicts more equipment to drool at.

how come VICTOR haven't gone all out to promote their rackets? the fact that most of us dont even know what rackets are the players sponsored by victor are using, means that the marketing side of victor is very weak. they should take this opportunity to promote their rackets. especially online where millions of people all over the world are within reach.

how come VICTOR haven't gone all out to promote their rackets? the fact that most of us dont even know what rackets are the players sponsored by victor are using, means that the marketing side of victor is very weak. they should take this opportunity to promote their rackets. especially online where millions of people all over the world are within reach.

Actually I think Victor has a fairly large network of sponsorship, but it is scattered throughout the world in pockets.

I know some of the UK's top pros are sponsored by Victor, and they also do a lot to support badminton on the grass roots levels in Europe.

But again not seeing enough pro players at the top being sponsored is a little disheartening... takes time I guess.

Originally Posted by Cannot_smash

Yes, he is using AT900P, and the shoes is SHB 99 LOW

Yes, the AT900P is LCW's new toy...
Don't you think it suits him well?

He seems a lot more confident using it.
I wish the blue shb99 low were available in all regions

Originally Posted by wakloo69

KKK/TBH and FHF (hardest smasher on the world) used Ti 10. Just want to know if anybody can give information about their string/how much lbs they put it? TQ

No clue, however, I'm willing to bet that some of our friends who post on other forums, in China know this info... or some fans may be diligent enough to ask the champs next time they see them

Actually I think Victor has a fairly large network of sponsorship, but it is scattered throughout the world in pockets.

I know some of the UK's top pros are sponsored by Victor, and they also do a lot to support badminton on the grass roots levels in Europe.

But again not seeing enough pro players at the top being sponsored is a little disheartening... takes time I guess.

well, i know victor sponsors a lot of players but my question is, does anybody know what equipments their sponsored players are using. so far, nobody can come up with the answer except for sudket's racket. and no info on shoes or other equipment. if nobody knows what these players are using, when those who likes to emulate their favourite players wants to buy the racket they use, then how? this means victor are not targeting their market. like yonex does with highlighting what top players are using. from this forum we know that a lot of people are interested in what their favourite player use and wants to use the rackets these players use. so not making sure people know about the equipment of their sponsored player kinda defeat the purpose of sponsoring a player. or maybe victor just wants people to know the brand but dont want to concentrate their marketing on one item or a few items only.

if nobody knows what these players are using, when those who likes to emulate their favourite players wants to buy the racket they use, then how? this means victor are not targeting their market.

Ah! ok, good point!
I think this is probably YY's greatest strength, and other manufacturer's eg Gosen, Carlton do this as well.

I remember reading this, and my friends who are sponsored, and a couple are pros say this to me when they choose their equipment.

That it is more about the brand name they try to promote.
It does not matter so much what the player uses, but rather that the name be on the minds of the public, and then people can do their own searching for what suits them best, because everyone is different.

However, when you get as big as YY is in badminton; there is nothing left to promote, but down to the most specific of things... eg. model # for equipment & technology used to develop the product. Selling the benefits of something, rather than just saying what it is; is marketing at its best.

If something has no benefit to me, I will not buy it.
Now I tell you that super nanotitaniummuscle armor 12000 will give you ultimate "effortless power" and I'm sold

Again now... this really only works for YY on a global scale, because their name is HUGE... when you talk about badminton, you think YY & a lot of the top pros are YY... there is nothing left to promote but the smaller things.